1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to optical devices and methods of making such devices, and more particularly to an optical polarized light source device and a method of making such device.
2. Description of Related Art
In the optical device field, polarized light is obtained by using a polarizer which absorbs or reflects light of one polarization and transmits light of the other polarization. Therefore, polarizers may be categorized as either absorbable of reflective polarizers.
Kaili Jiang et al. discloses an absorbable polarizer in an article entitled “Spinning Continuous Carbon Nanotube Yams”(Nature Vol. 419, P.801 24 Oct. 2002). A method of making the polarizer comprises the following steps: (1) drawing a carbon nanotube yam from a superaligned array of carbon nanotubes, each carbon nanotube yam comprising a plurality of carbon nanotube bundles joined end to end in a kind of chain with van der Waals attractive force interconnecting ends of adjacent bundles; and (2) aligning pieces of the carbon nanotube yam side-by-side and substantially parallel to one another on a transparent substrate such that an optical polarizing film comprising a plurality of substantially parallel carbon nanotubes is formed on the substrate. When light beams are transmitted into a front side of the polarizer, light beams having a polarization parallel to the carbon nanotubes are absorbed, whereas light beams having another polarization normal to the carbon nanotubes are transmitted through the polarizer. This results in polarized light beams transmitting from a rear side of the polarizer. Since the diameter of a carbon nanotube is approximately only 0.4˜30 nm, the polarizing capability of the polarizer can extend into the UV region.
However, there is no device in the art which can directly provide polarized light beams.